"SoCal Connected is going on hiatus as Season 5 ends this week, although we will continue to be on the air twice a week with some original programming and the best of the season," said Marcus, s.v.p., news and factual programming. "As happens every year, there are questions about the show's future. And the answer is always the same. SoCal Connected depends on public funding and we don't know at this time what that funding will be. We are very proud of what we have accomplished this year, and hope SoCal Connected will be back for Season 6."

In 2011, KCET was forced to shut down production of new episodes a few weeks earlier than usual, after losing U.S. Bank as a corporate sponsor. Now there’s the added complexity of KCET’s merger with noncom satellite network Link TV in January. Episodes of SoCal Connected were to be among the KCET programs to run on Link TV’s national schedule.

Filed Under:

Read Next

Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, will be the featured guest on C-SPAN's The Communicators at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Saturday, with a repeat at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern April 1. He'll discuss the future of public broadcasting with Communications Daily reporter Kamala Lane, and Communicators host Peter Slen.